Remote and wild in the best sense, Kalpitiya sits on a long peninsula on the northwest coast, surrounded by lagoons, sandbanks, and open ocean. It is a premier destination for kitesurfing, and the waters between Kalpitiya and the Bar Reef Marine Sanctuary offer some of Sri Lanka’s most reliable dolphin watching, with spinner dolphin pods frequently sighted between November and April. The eco-lodge scene here is intimate and genuinely off the beaten track.